The code in your second picture will not add any spaces to the end of the label in for the dataset DM.   What I suspect you are doing is trying to use some metadata to generate the code.  So perhaps you have a dataset with MEMNAME and MEMLABEL and you are using it to generate that code with LABEL= dataset option.   If you use macro variables to generate the code. &dsname(label="&dslabel") Then make sure that the macro variables do not have trailing spaces in them.  So make sure to use CALL SYMPUTX() instead of the ancient CALL SYMPUT().  NOTE: You should only be using CALL SYMPUT() if it is important to include leading/trailing spaces in the generated macro variables. call symputx('dsname',memname); call symputx('dslabel',memlabel); Or if you are using SQL use the TRIMMED keyword. select memname,memlabel into :dsname trimmed , :dslabel trimmed from ... If you use a data step to write the code to a file then make sure not to write the trailing spaces. put memname '(label=' memlabel :$quote. ')' ; Also you might want to use the QUOTE() function to add the quotes.  That way you can use the optional second parameter so that the value is quoted using single quotes so that any % or & characters in the member label are not acted on by the macro processor. call symputx('dslabel',quote(trim(memlabel),"'")); ... &dsname(label=&dslabel) ...   NOTE: It is also possible that the metadata used to generate the label has other invisible characters instead of spaces.  So check that also.  Common things to check for are tabs ('09'x) and non-breaking spaces ('A0'x). Or end of line characters carriage return ('0D'x) or line feed ('0A'x). memlabel=translate(memlabel,' ','09A00D0A'x);   ... View more

First figure out what code you want to generate. Perhaps something like: data out1; set in1; new1 = old1; new2 = old2; run; So then if you had a dataset that looked like: data meta ; input (oldds newds oldvar newvar) (:$32.); cards; in1 out1 old1 new1 in1 out1 old2 new2 ; You could use a data step like this to generate the code. data _null_; set meta; by oldds ; file 'newfile.sas'; if first.oldds then put 'data ' newds ';' / ' set ' oldds ';' ; put newvar '=' oldvar ';' ; if last.oldds then put 'run;' ; run; ... View more

Your code does not appear to make much sense as written. And there are not any comments explaining what it is trying to do.   We could try to add some more code so that we can see what SAS code it is trying to generate. %macro xx(); This is what XX emits. %mend xx; %macro test; put "%nrstr(%xx());"// "options validavarname= v7;"//; %do i=1 %to &n; put "data &&fm&i.;"/ "set xx;"/ %do j = 1 %to &&cnt&i; if type = 2 then do; if x ne y then do; put +2 x " = " y ";"// end; end; %end; "run;"//; %end; %mend test; But to test it we will have to make a lot of assumptions about the macro variables it is referencing. %let n=2; %let fm=fm; %let fm1=out1; %let fm2=out2; %let cnt=cnt; %let cnt1=2 ; %let cnt2=3; Now we can try calling the macro in the middle of a data step and see what the data step compiler makes of the SAS statements the macro code generates. options mprint; data _null_; %test; run; You can see that the macro generates that quoted string outside of any of the other SAS statements it generates. MPRINT(TEST): put "%xx();"// "options validavarname= v7;"//; MPRINT(TEST): put "data out1;"/ "set xx;"/ if type = 2 then do; MPRINT(TEST): if x ne y then do; MPRINT(TEST): put +2 x " = " y ";"// end; MPRINT(TEST): end; MPRINT(TEST): if type = 2 then do; MPRINT(TEST): if x ne y then do; MPRINT(TEST): put +2 x " = " y ";"// end; MPRINT(TEST): end; NOTE: Line generated by the invoked macro "TEST". 106 "run;"//; ______ 180 MPRINT(TEST): "run;"//; MPRINT(TEST): put "data out2;"/ "set xx;"/ if type = 2 then do; MPRINT(TEST): if x ne y then do; MPRINT(TEST): put +2 x " = " y ";"// end; MPRINT(TEST): end; MPRINT(TEST): if type = 2 then do; MPRINT(TEST): if x ne y then do; MPRINT(TEST): put +2 x " = " y ";"// end; MPRINT(TEST): end; MPRINT(TEST): if type = 2 then do; MPRINT(TEST): if x ne y then do; MPRINT(TEST): put +2 x " = " y ";"// end; MPRINT(TEST): end; NOTE: Line generated by the invoked macro "TEST". 106 "run;"//; ______ 180 MPRINT(TEST): "run;"//; ERROR 180-322: Statement is not valid or it is used out of proper order. 107 run; NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors. NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time): real time 0.00 seconds cpu time 0.00 seconds But it is also generating other silly SAS statements, like: MPRINT(TEST): put "data out2;"/ "set xx;"/ if type = 2 then do; MPRINT(TEST): put +2 x " = " y ";"// end; Does your input dataset actually have variables named IF, TYPE , THEN, DO and END?    And that inner %DO loop over the macro variable J makes no sense becuase it is just generating the same code multiple times.  Only way it makes sense is if those macro variables it is referencing can only have values of 0 or 1.  In which case why not just use an %IF %THEN %DO block instead of %DO loop.   And how did you get those series of &&FM&I and &&CNT&I variables?  Did you generate them from a dataset? Why not just use the data step that reads in that dataset to drive the loop instead of converting the dataset variables into macro variables and then passing the macro variables back a data step as quoted strings to then write out?       ... View more

To get those error messages the dataset MONTH must have already had a variable named N. If that is the case then the SUM statement will just increment the value of N read from the source dataset by one.  So an existing value of -2 would be transformed to -1 and yield a variable name of YEAR-1.   Run this example to see: data good(drop=n) bad; do n=-12 to 0 ; date = intnx('month',today(),n); year=year(date); month=month(date); output; end; run; data _null_; set good; n+1; call symputx(cats('year',n),year); run; data _null_; set bad; n+1; call symputx(cats('year',n),year); run; ... View more

The data step will work fine if you give it the same input, DISTINCT_MONTHS, as you gave the SQL query. But you should not need to use the COMPRESS() function.  Just use the CATS() function. data _null_; set distinct_months; n+1; call symputx(cats("year",n), year); call symputx(cats("month",n), month); run; If the goal is just to make the macro variables then skip making the dataset. proc sql noprint; select distinct year, put(month,z2.) into :year1- , :month1- from months order by year , month ; quit;   ... View more

Just don't put the leading spaces into the character variable to begin with and then there is no need to remove them later. data want1; set have2; syndromechar=put(syndrome,20.-L); run; And if you want to remove leading spaces then use a function that just removes the leading spaces, not one that removes spaces anywhere in the string. if left(syndromechar)='1'   ... View more

How long are your actual labels? And your dataset names since they are both displayed on the same line in the PROC COMPARE output.   You can use the ATTRC() function as I showed to check if your labels have been defined with multiple trailing spaces.  If doing it in data step it takes a little work to notice the trailing spaces. data test1(label='NoTrailing') test2(label='Trailing ') ; x=1; run; data check; length memname $32 len lenn 8 label $300 ; do memname='test1','test2'; dsid=open(memname); label=quote(attrc(dsid,'label')); len=length(dequote(label)); lenn=lengthn(translate(dequote(label),'.',' ')); dsid=close(dsid); output; end; drop dsid; run; data _null_; set check; put (memname len lenn label) (=); run; Results show that the trailing spaces are actually stored in the metadata of the dataset. memname=test1 len=10 lenn=10 label="NoTrailing" memname=test2 len=8 lenn=10 label="Trailing " ... View more

In the old days you would CD ("change directory") to the target directory before running your program with SAS and then your program would not need to know anything about what directory to use.     So if you ran these commands  >cd /my/project/folder >sas /our/system/folder/standard_program.sas SAS would create standard_program.log and standard_program.lst in the /my/project/folder directory.   With these new "app server" methods of launching SAS that is harder to control. ... View more

I would check if the folders you are using have been linked to cloud storage (like Microsoft OneDrive).  Perhaps that is what is causing the interferance.  Or perhaps some other form of automatic backup.   Are you using the "enchanced" editor? Does it still do the same thing if you use the plain old Program Editor instead.       ... View more

The fact that PROC output datasets generate different names for the variables is the most dangerous thing with using VALIDVARNAME=ANY.   The most annoying thing is having to type name literals into your code.   There is the NLITERAL() function that can help in code generation functions.   To your last point you can use the Q modifier on %SCAN() to help with name literals in variable lists.  The DEQUOTE() function also helps. 73 %macro test(varlist,sep=%str( )); 74 %local name i ; 75 %do i=1 %to %sysfunc(countw(&varlist,&sep,q)); 76 %let name=%sysfunc(nliteral(%sysfunc(dequote(%qscan(&varlist,&i,%str( ),q))))); 77 %put &=i &=name; 78 %end; 79 %mend; 80 81 %test(a 'b c'n x) I=1 NAME=a I=2 NAME="b c"N I=3 NAME=x   SAS has the NVALID() function that can check if a string is a valid variable names. You could also use this macro to check if a string can be used as valid for variable names or member names or pther types of names. https://github.com/sasutils/macros/blob/c1f45370cbf72e7bd35806712fb2752a62f3e6cb/nvalid.sas Here is part of the explanation of the type of names it can validate. Meaning of TYPE value choice: ANY - Any string from 1 to 32 characters long. V7 - Only contains Letters, digits or _ and does not start with digit. UPCASE - Same as V7 but lowercase letters not allowed. V6 - Same as V7 but max length is 8 instead of 32. NLITERAL - A name that is not V7 valid must be in NLITERAL form. FILEREF - Same as V6 with additional test if FILEREF is defined LIBREF - Same as V6 with additional test if LIBREF is defined FORMAT - Same as V7 but allow $ prefix and exclude terminal digit INFORMAT - Same as V7 but allow $ prefix and exclude terminal digit MEMNAME - Valid membername based on VALIDMEMNAME setting. COMPAT - an alias for COMPATIBLE. COMPATIBLE - Same as V7 but used for member name. EXTEND - Same as NLITERAL except there are extra excluded characters.   ... View more

Transpose the data and run regression by the id variable, which looks like it is named XAHEAD. %let x=100 80 60 40 30 20 10 5; %let vars=eff_min_ct_%sysfunc(tranwrd(&x,%str( ),%str( eff_min_ct_))); data tall; set have; array _x[%sysfunc(countw(&x))] _temporary_ (&x); array _y &vars; do over _x; x=_x; y=_y; output; end; drop &vars; run; proc reg data=tall; by xahead ; model y=x ; run; But you might want to talk to a statistician about better ways to analyze your data. ... View more

Not sure I follow your whole thread but is seems you might need to know the NEXT value of START to do what you want.   That is harder than finding the PREVIOUS value since it is much harder to predict the future than to remember the past.   SAS makes it easy to find the PREVIOUS value by using the LAG() function to remember the past value.   Here is simple trick to predict the future.  Use an additional SET statement to read in the same dataset only using FIRSTOBS=2 to skip the first observation.  I like to add a third read of just the first observation to make the two SET statements have the same number of observations. Remember to take care not to use the NEXT value when at the end of a BY group since it comes from the following BY group.  Just like you took care not to use the PREVIOUS value at the start of the BY group since it came from an earlier BY group. data v2a; set v2; by id tx_date ; prev_tx_date=lag(tx_date); set v2(keep=tx_date rename=(tx_date=next_tx_date) firstobs=2) v2(obs=1 drop=_all_) ; if first.id then do; days_diff=0; cum_teeth=0; end; else do; days_diff=tx_date-prev_tx_date-1; end; if last.id then call missing(next_tx_date); else stop_date = next_tx_date -1 ; format stop_date date9.; cum_teeth+num_teeth_per_txdate; drop prev_tx_date next_tx_date ; run; ... View more

No need to make a physical copy of the data, just use a view to drive your report. data for_report / view=for_report; set have; percent = Concession/Sales; format percent percent8.2 ; run; ... View more